As the economy emerges from Covid, consumers are placing a higher value on enjoying memorable moments versus products, treating themselves to often luxurious experiences.
It is within this context that Marriott International is expanding its property footprint, with 105 hotels in the pipeline, 24 of which are in the Middle East.
To discuss the highlights of this growth, and the growing ‘bleisure’ trend (a combination of business and leisure travel), Arabian Business sat down with the COO of Marriott International Sandeep Walia.
In a wide-reaching interview, Walia also spoke about the residential hospitality properties trend – which is booming as guests look a combination of privacy and service – and the global hotel operator’s diversity and inclusion strategy for the region.
Could you tell us more about your GCC expansion plans for the rest of 2022?
The maximum this year would be in Doha whereas the largest chunk of openings last year was in Dubai with ten openings: we had two St Regis properties, two Aloft, two Elements and a lot of residential space.
Coming to this year, we are looking more at Doha but we’re also looking at our Ritz Carlton Amman property opening in Jordan, which is going to one of our key flagship openings.
We’re going to have Marriott at the Palm opening and the opening of the Marriott in Jeddah. We have the St. Regis in Riyadh opening which is going to be our first St. Regis in Saudi Arabia. Also a first Edition opening in Jeddah, right on the Formula One race track.
A lot of what I mentioned is in Q3-Q4, getting ready for the World Cup which is a big growth engine for us.
But moving forward, Turkey is also big for us and we have a lot of openings that we’re looking at. We’re also looking at Saudi Arabia where we [currently] have about 36 open hotels, with about 9,800 rooms. In terms of rooms, we almost doubled and we have another 9,000 plus coming up in the pipeline with about 26 hotels – so Saudi Arabia is also a big growth engine for us.
Looking slightly longer term, or at the 105 as opposed to 24, what are the highlights?
One trend we feel will continue to see is residential, one part of which is the extended stay with brands like Residence Inn, which opened last year in Dubai, and Element.
This trend sped up because of Covid-19. A lot of people are moving out of their own apartments and they want less headache of cleanliness, hygiene etc.; the daily chores are removed and somebody is looking after everything.
But what’s also really doing well – this year we announced three such projects in Dubai itself- is the branded residential space. For example, we announced St. Regis residences with Emaar where we had 1,100 rooms right in the centre of the city next to the Dubai Opera overlooking the fountain.
The guests are buying into it saying I want my own space but I want the luxury of a hotel environment and somebody looking after me.
Are these mainly apartments or other types of living spaces?
The W Downtown and St. Regis, for example, are purely apartments while the Ritz Carlton Residences is mansions, villas and apartments but we’re seeing growth in all directions.
Business which came back first after Covid is the luxury and leisure space and I think we’re going to continue to see growth there; in fact, more than 50 percent of our growth this year is in the luxury space.
Even if you look at last year, we opened four St. Regis (two in Dubai, two in Egypt) so a lot of growth in the luxury space and in the leisure because people are saying let me treat myself and travel.
What’s the drive behind this? Is that the two years of lock-down? Is there a heightened appreciation of experiences that matter?
There was already a trend of moving to experiences versus products in some parts of the globe and Covid-19 only sped it up with people asking themselves if they need another suit or bag or should they replace that with a nice dive or desert experience.
That’s what we’ve seen in the hotel industry too; people are saying let me just go and have that experience, let me treat myself to a spa treatment and then not worry about it. Let me go on a business trip and then take two days off for myself – the word bleisure is kind of overused but it is true. People are taking the time off for themselves and treating themselves.
From your perspective as a hospitality executive, if we are coming to you with more expectations for our leisure time, is there more of a responsibility to deliver?
Absolutely. The fact that there needs to be a ruthless focus on the guest is even more important today.
I was building the business by saying the strategy is to look after the guest and the owners, but it starts with our own people. If I’m happy, I can give happiness. If I am feeling sad today it will be difficult for me to come to work and give happiness.
With that said, we need to come up with tools to say we need to create these special moments and memories [for our guests] by sharing the message internally that we are selling experiences and happiness, not just gin and tonic.
What can you tell us about diversity and inclusion in Marriott?
There are two big focuses related to this: one is female leadership and the other is localisation.
When it comes to localisation, let us take as an example Saudi Arabia where we have 36 hotels and are opening many others. Given this context, we need to develop a lot of local talent.
You go to Turkey, you find a lot of local talent there and we need to have the same coming in Saudi. There’s a lot of authenticity there, a lot of pride in being Saudi and so tomorrow’s GMs need to be Saudi-that’s the ultimate goal and to get there, we need to start today.
So we started a 12-month programme, a partnership between Cornell and Marriott, where upon graduation they are ready to be leaders in the area they have chosen.
Interestingly this connects to another diversity role which is female leadership. The programme’s new batch is 70 percent women by default meaning we don’t have a quota system. We just appointed the first woman GM in Saudi Arabia and we recently had a first female GM for Egypt.
I think a few things are about setting an example which needs to become a trend. It’s not just to have a story that you announce the first few minutes, it needs to be the trend.
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